When a grotesque mysteriously turns up in your classroom and asks you to make him some friends, it’s time to try some clay art…
While sculpture projects are often great fun for children, especially when they get to try some clay art, it can often be hard for teachers to find purposeful, relevant and meaningful contexts for them.
As a result, it is common for clay art to be associated with festivities, such as Christmas or Easter, where decorative objects can be made, or children are encouraged to make pinch pots or tiles with scrawled designs.
However, the book Night of the Gargoyles by Eve Bunting provides a fun and motivational context for a sculpture project that also links perfectly with cross-curricular English learning.
Night of the Gargoyles is a picture book that explores the fantastical nocturnal adventures of gargoyles that adorn buildings. When night falls and the city sleeps, these stone creatures come to life, leaving their perches to explore the darkened world.
Clay art learning objectives
- Learn how to work, sculpt and join clay to create a 3D sculpture
- Communicate emotion and personality through shape, form and gesture
Starter activity
It seems to be a universal truth that all teachers love to bring a little theatre into their classroom; whether that be through channelling character voices when reading the class novel or donning a ridiculous outfit for a charity day.
The theatrics for this 3D clay art project start a few weeks before the children even catch sight of any clay.
Find a little gargoyle ornament (try eBay) and place it in your classroom. Ask all the adults in the room to deny any knowledge of its origins.
The next day, move it to your desk. A mystery! This will quickly turn into the latest playground gossip for both the children and their parents.
After a few more days of exploring the classroom, ask the children to name the gargoyle. Place it on top of a copy of Night of the Gargoyles. What choice do you have but to read this new and intriguing text?
Marc Bowen is deputy head, Y4 teacher and curriculum leader at Raglan Primary School, Bromley. Browse more KS2 art ideas.
